High performance laptop

Hi all,

I am about to purchase a new laptop. What specs would you recommend for a high performance machine that will run SU and LO well?

Thanks in advance!

Sketchup takes advantage of single core performance, it’s not necessary to have 32 cores unless you’re using the cpu for rendering. Also having a good gpu compatible with the new engine is a must to have good performance. Right now the apple CPUs have the highest cpu single core score on every benchmark followed by AMD’s.

Thanks!
I should have been clear: I run PCs.

Do you mean windows?
PC= Personal Computer.

Sketchup can run on almost any modern computer, what kind of work do you do?
The only windows laptop I like is the asus proart p16, it has a powerful AMD cpu and an Nvidia gpu.

Yeah, Windows. (sorry)

I do architecture and use SU and LO exclusively for my workflow.

I found that SU and LO run terribly on my 2019 Microsoft Surface book
Intel(R) Core™ i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.71 GHz|
|Installed RAM|8.00 GB|
|System type|64-bit operating system, x64-based processor|
Windows 10

Thanks for the insight on the Asus!

You probably want at least 16 gb ram 32 seems better. GPU memory speeds things up too. So my 2 cents besides a good single core chip are ram and a strong graphics card.

In PassMark Intel is on top today but I doubt if the individual scores are that important. Anything with a PassMark score of, say, 3500 or more will run SketchUp OK if combined with an above average Nvidia graphics card and enough of memory - I would get 32 GB although my current computer has 16.

Hi @mattd, thanks for the posts. The other users are offering pretty solid advice. As a member of the SketchUp team I can’t offer an endorsement of a particular machine or brand of parts. I can however, offer some general advice.

As 3D modeling is all handled in a single core, modeling speed is going to depend on CPU speed rather than core count as pointed out by the other posts. Also as pointed out by other users, more ram will let you load larger files and a solid GPU will help with a number of things too.

At the end of the day, you are almost looking to build or buy something akin to a gaming computer. You don’t need a top of the line model, but something mid or high tier is more what you would be looking for.

Hopefully the thread here helps you decide on what you want.

Thanks everyone for the insight. I have a shop that builds my Desktop machines. They offered this insight:
Going off the requirements for Sketchup, I’d go for at least 16GB of RAM and optionally a system with dedicated Nvidia graphics. I should note that dedicated graphics in laptops tend to reduce overall battery life due to the increased power demand. These systems also run a bit hot even with the more elaborate cooling designs. They are also more expensive to service. If you trade a bit of performance to skip the dedicated graphics it would help temperatures and battery life

I was planning on a dedicated graphics card.
I don’t think I’m willing to trade any performance. SU and LO already struggle as it is with performance. :wink:

Thoughts?

You need a good graphics card!
Onboard graphics are not recommended by SketchUp.
Off course that’s going to cost battery life, but that’s because you want performance. There’s always a tradeoff…

Have a look at the Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop range. I have been very pleased with mine.

32 GB ram is much better

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